Reviews by AlMarzo:

More User Reviews:

Had this at the Brass in MT. Pleasant,MI. on $1.00 Michigan beer night,poured a hazed light amber with a nice two finger sticky white head.Caramel was most prevelant in the aroma with some dryer earth-like hop aromas as well,no frills flavor wise caramel malt and so roastiness lingering into that earthy drier hop finish keeping it from being overly sweet.A food friendly amber and easy going down,recommended. (411 characters)

Pours into a large champagne flute at Cocoliquot in Madison a less effervescent and near headless NG Belgian Red color, that being the color of a blood tulip. I find it quite fitting and absolutely brilliant. This is one of the more striking beer bodies I have seen in some time, however, the miniscule head, and pitiful lacing precludes me from giving this beer a 4.5 or 5 for appearance. Its still very striking. Visible carbonation is low. Aroma is a balanced subtlety of crystal malt, caramel, light yeasty fruitiness, and diacetyl. Taste is sadly on the bland side. All flavors are consistent with the nose and pleasant but very light. Bitterness is highly restrained, however there seems to be a variety of malts, well blended and perfectly balanced that act as the saving grace of this beer. Its certainly unique and not unenjoyable in the slightest. As the beer warms cocoa powder, and a ever so slightly spicy hopped, nutty finish enter the fray. Body is medium to full and clean until the beer reaches room temperature. Drinkability suffers from a dirty mouthfeel created by the yeast at that point. Carbonation on the tongue falls within acceptable parameters. A solid beer and quite the looker. A standout for that reason alone. (1,242 characters)

A-I genrally like a little more clarity in my red/ amber but this one had a very nice head that stayed till the last.

S- Very typical mild malt smell, no big deal here.

T- My biggest issues were here. This is a deeply sweet beer with fuller caramel tones than you typically find in the style and that seemed to fight with, rather than balnce the hop bitterness. I can tolerate sweet amber but the balance just isn't here.

Somewhat opaque deep red pour with a slightly sticky off white head on top. Looks good in the glass. Nutty caramels in the nose with a solid sweet maltiness and a bit of light floral, herbal hops.

A nice chewy caramel drenched nutty malt leads the way along with slight cocoa and big fruit tones. There's just a bit of hoppiness that comes through on the way down. A nice red overall.

Medium bodied with a nice bit of carbonation. I think it fits pretty well with the style. A tasty beer overall that is pretty drinkable. I'm not a huge red ale fan but this one left me happy. (582 characters)

12 oz bottle pours a hazy burnt orange amber body with a small khaki head. Island chain lacing adorns the glass. Aroma of citrusy orange hops, caramel, and a hint of milk chocolate. Medium body and carbonation. Taste is milk chocolate, caramel, and fruity hops. The chocolate seems out of place but this is a decent brew. (321 characters)

Hazy,coppery color with amber highlights with a 1" off-white head with a light tannish look,head was slightly creamy looking and fizzled loudly and quickly diminshed into a slight coating.Some very spotty lacing with a few small stinging bubbles on the sides of the glass.

Perfumy aroma with candied maltiness,toasty with hints of chocolate. A good bit of fruity esters with a prune likd note being the standout.Malty and fruity with a slight mustiness.

Very fruity and sweet,dark fruitiness being most noticable with a semi-burnt carmellness and chocolate tones. some metallic tastes,not offensive,has a smooth bittering finish with a good deal of tartness.

Bought a case a few weeks back-time to finally review.Pours light shade of brown-murky. Amberish with some orangey colors coming through at the edge of the glass. Beige head dissipates.Aroma-malty, caramel, toffee, some lightly roasted malt aromas.Mouthfeel-good cabonation delivers a light bitterness. This gives way to one of the neatest malt flavor profiles I have ever had. The aromas described become flavors. Some grainy textures on the palate too. A froth on the palate keeps it consistent. This is malt dominat but very flavorful and yummy. Rating high? You bet, great ale. (584 characters)

Pours a thin off-white had over a bright crimson body. Head drops quickly, leaving thin lace. Fairly strong aromas of sweet caramelized malt lead are the main players with a light berry-like fruit meandering through. Flavor is similar with a big caramel malt character up front, backed by berry fruit notes. A significant chocolate and biscuit character as well. Hops are light to medium, but there is enough bitterness and earthy and floral flavor to keep the malt in check. Body is lean to medium, with a soft feel and dry finish.

Hands down one of my favorite Michigan brews. I look forward to its arrival each spring almost as much as the warm weather. Think of it as the love child of a Scottish and Amber ale. It features a great malt complexity without being too sweet. (849 characters)

I decided to pick this one up at Churchill's, our local grocer. They usually keep a nice collection of beer in stock including local brewers. The overall appearance of this one was interesting. Deep amber with thin head with moderate lacing on the glass. Looked heavily carbonated when I poured it, almost like a cola. The smell had a hint of caremel with toasty grain as well as citrus rind and faint hops. The taste was a bit molasses with light hops up front and a toasty rice finish. Very mild. The mouthfeel was smooth and light. Not as heavily carbonated as I first thought. This one goes down easily. Refreshing on a warm day and sturdy enough to session.I reviewed this beer yesterday and my opinion stands except I wanted to add a pairing. Aged spanish gouda. The gouda that I purchased from Zingerman's in Ann Arbor has a grainy texture and a salty, nutty taste. Red Tulip goes great with it!The cheese brings out the subtle caremel and toasty grains of the beer as well heightening the molasses and citrus making the beer even smoother. Perfect for dessert! (1,074 characters)

Gorgeous looking beer. Magenta-hued brown. The same color as the label. That's impressive. The head is sandstone and lasting.
Nose full of toasted grain and little else.
Begins with that same toastiness from the nose. Caramel sweetness helps quell it, as do the cherry and raisin notes. Some powdered cocoa resides in the later half along with fragments of buttery yeast. Ends drier with an introverted herbal/floral hop medley. Traces of molasses-coated walnuts around the swallow.
Medium bodied with an excitable amount of carbonation.
Solid brew here. Different, but that's most of the allure. (601 characters)

A - Hazy pinkish red-orange hue with a tan one finger head that quickly settles to a thick collar and some wispy haze. A swirl brings back a solid finger, and a decent amount of lace is left on the glass. This is a good looking red ale!

S - Sweet caramel malt with some apple juice and toast. Raspberry jam and peanut butter on toast. This is much more solidly malty that I thought it would be....there are a lot of toasty, nutty, and fruity things going on here. No real hop aromas though.

T - Sweet, sweet malty goodness! This is caramel coated joy in a glass for malt-heads. A good deal of grassy and leafy hops show up here, whereas they were non-existent in the nose. There are big peanut butter flavors here too, along with some raspberry jam covered toast. This burst of flavor was unexpected for a style that I normally associate with boring mediocrity.

M - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation and a sweet slickness that coats the mouth. The finish is very slightly dry and hoppy, but the overall effect is sweet and juicy.

D - This just may be the most drinkable brew that I've had in a while. It's got all the right stuff...lip-smacking flavor, my daily dose of hops, a big heap of malty sweetness, excellent thirst-quenching ability, and a relatively low ABV (I'm guessing). I have been avoiding this catch-all category of beer because most other red ales that I've had have been boring watered down and half-baked quasi-APAs with no real character, this however, has changed my opinion of what a red ale can be. (1,539 characters)

On-tap at the Come Back In for $5 a pitcher. Apparently it had been tapped on the wrong line and had to be gotten rid of quickly.

Pours a dark ruby/amber with a finger of pearly foam and minimal lacing. Nose is biscuity malt, peppery/earthy hops, and a hint of sweet fruit. Taste is big and malty, surpringly dominated by a subtle smoked oak flavor and supported by caramel, cherry, and earthy/floral hops. Mouthfeel is crisp and refreshing. A surpringly complex amber ale with a unique smokey/fruity character that can't be beat at $5 a pitcher. (549 characters)

This soft, malty, and sweetish red ale passes through the lips, across the tongue, and down the gullet; pillowy-soft and velvety smooth with a dextrinous medium-full body and restrained, low-key carbonation. In the glass it's a hazy, deep reddish-copper that reveals glowing orange highlights near the base of the glass; and rests beneath a frothy head of ivory colored foam that holds quite well and leaves some very nice lacing about the glass. Biscuity and lightly toasty malt appears in the nose, but the combination of its sweetness, yeasty fruitiness and subtle diacetyl, and crystal malts combine in the flavor to make it much more mellow, nutty, and deeply caramelish. It's backed by a restrained but balancing bitterness... and this beer really is all about rich, supple maltiness! It's oh-so-round and soft! What hops are present in the flavor (leafy, grassy, floral) only add a nuance to the overall character, and never stand out on their own. It finishes drying despite its rich maltiness, and it never builds on the palate. It's unique, and easy to drink, and would certainly have enough carachter to carry you through several servings. I could see this beer working in any number of situations (holiday dinner, after-work pint, ice-cold from the cooler BBQ beer, sporting event, etc.); and it's clearly an accessible, cross-over beer for those looking to move away from the mass produced American lagers that are so predominant! Give it a try!!! (1,460 characters)

Pours an almost brown amber with a little bit of a head that is gone before I get back upstairs from the fridge. Aromas are dull... caramel malt - that''s it. Flavor is pretty malt heavy, too. Caramel and maybe some fruit around the edges. Pretty good, but pretty plain. (270 characters)

Clear amber with ruby highlights and nicely carbonated with tight head.Aroma of dark fruits, similar to wine, with a pleasant malt sweetness and bready earthiness. Medium-bodied, malty with a creamy, and unexpectatedly warm finish. Recommended. (251 characters)

A: Pours semi-hazy and reddish-amber in color. White head settles out fairly quickly and lacing was average.

S: Thick in toasted toffee and caramel aromas. Almost honey-like as well. Very sweet scents, almost sickly so.

T: Warm, toasty flavors up front. Sweetness is balanced nicely by a muted hops earthiness. Some faint caramel and bread notes manage to come through as the beer warms.

M: Silky medium body. Carbonation was higher than expected, but still restrained enough to let the flavors linger. Finishes pretty clean and neutral.

D: A solid kick-back amber that goes down real easy.

Not too bad. Nothing extraordinary, but a very solid beer. The brew was much more balanced in the taste than the nose initially suggested, something that was much appreciated by this reviewer. May not be complex enough for some, but I'll definitely be giving some of my "beer impaired" friends a taste of this bad boy. (941 characters)

Pours red with a tan head in my Sam's Adam's glass. The aroma and flavor both have an interesting mix of strawberry and cherry with nutty cocoa flavor, sort of like a fruity brown ale. Overall, these flavors come off a bit simple - not too deep - but it's different and pleasant enough to drink that this is totally worth a try. (364 characters)

Gorgeous deep ivory head with great lacing. Clear reddish-brown in the glass. Taste is lightly roasted malt bolstered by a little sweetness. The roastiness carries over to the taste, which also features some light chocolate and a good dose of hoppiness that appears in the end. Finishes light and dry. A little more in the way of body and this would be a very good red ale.
Thanks to CRJM for the bottles. (406 characters)

Oddly enough, because this isn't an overwhelming beer, this is the beer that started to turn me into a beer snob. I was bored and living by myself one summer, so I started trying out new beers available from Martin's Supermarket (South Bend, IN) down the street from my house. And this was the first I actually sat down and thought about reviewing properly. It had a very unique taste compared to your run-of-the-mill industry beers and I was hooked. It pours out a deep reddish-brown with a semi-thick head. It looks more like a brown ale than an amber. The smell is great - of roasty malts but mainly a very strong aroma of flowers. And the taste is much the same - a complex of roast and flowers and chocolates that works very well. It's a Spring release, but I didn't have any trouble finding it all summer. (811 characters)